Stenhols, Marcus

Dolls 4R: A measurement of knowledge development : A study of students’ development of knowledge (English)

Abstract [en]

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine a way to measure students’ knowledge development by using a self-made measure instrument based on William Doll’s postmodern curriculum.

Question: Is it suitable to use an self-made measure instrument based on William Doll’s post-modern curriculum theory to measure development of knowledge?

Methods: The study was based on process-hermeneutics and was focused on analysingcollege students’ written and oral reflective thoughts. The data was collected over three lessons, where six students’ written reflective thoughts were handed in. An observation was carried out each lesson for an extra control of validity. A group of nine students was taken as a control of the measure instrument’s reliability. The measure instrument was built from Doll’s categories: Richness, Recursion, Relations and Rigor. Each category was divided by three levels of thinking. Each reflective task was judged by two judges. An extra text analysing was done to control whether there was a knowledge development outside the measure instrument.

Results: The results of the judged reflective tasks was tested with both Cohen’s Kappa and Cronbach’s alpha. Cohen’s Kappa revealed the accordance of k= -0.047 n=9 for the control group and k= 0.364 n=14 (reflective tasks) for the test group. Cronbach’s alpha revealed a consistency of 0.645 n=9 (students) in the control group and 0.351 n=6 in the test group. After three lessons, judge one considered 66%, judge two 33% of the students demonstrated acquired development of knowledge. One criteria, Rigor, showed a low rate of acquired knowledge development. The reason behind that could be in the nature of the theory behind Rigor itself, and the students’ understandings of it.

Conclusion: The results does not support the premises of this study. The tests of reliability fail to support the claim that the measure instrument should be reliable enoughto be used to measure knowledge. The instrument needs to be altered to be able toserve as a reliable tool for measurement. Further research is needed in order to reveal if the instrument and Doll’s 4R theory are useful as curriculum and measuring tool for knowledge development.